You know it's bad when ...

... you have to dust off the vacuum cleaner. I don't think I've changed the bag in it. Ever.


I don't have much to say about myself (collective sigh), so here are some cool links.


This is an article about the 22 year solar cycles discussing how the next peak will be in 2012 (they call it an 11 year cycle in the article, but the magnetic poles switch every 11, so a true cycle takes 22 years).

I note that the Mayan calendar ends December 21st, 2012. I'm not going to tell you the world is going to end then like some would, but it does sort of indirectly suggest that the Mayans knew about sunspots (that would be thousands of years ahead of Galileo, a good 2300 years ago -- sunspots were observed long before Galileo, but he first properly explained them). Why the Mayans felt the need to predict solstices more than two millennia into the future, and why they stopped in 2012, remains a mystery.

You can actually observe the larger sunspots with the naked eye, but I don't recommend it. If you want to observe the sun, use welder's glass or project the image on a screen. Directly looking at the sun will literally burn your retinas out. /disclaimer

I'll just off-handedly note that increased solar activity seems to coincide with warmer temperatures and more violent weather. I'm not trying to discredit the greenhouse gas argument, but if you care about global warming, you ought to know about one of its likely causes. The icecaps are melting on Mars too, is all I'm sayin'*. Correlation/causation and all that.


This article is about the therapeutic effects of psychedelic drugs, such as LSD and psilocybin (mushrooms). Shit, I could have told them about the 'shrooms. If you do it right, in nature in the summertime with friends you can trust, and you don't take too many, you will have basically a religious experience (not that I know what that feels like). You probably shouldn't eat them for the first time right before you have a big formal dinner while on a school field trip in DC in a huge 2000 person conference hall while sitting next to your adult chaperon. Just sayin'.

Note that the conditions of the study are that only patients who don't respond to other treatments should use these drugs for therapy, and then only in small doses, and only under supervision. Um... ok. I guess they have to say that to get government approval.


* Jupiter's weather patterns are also changing.